November 4, 2022
A Gazette Editorial
As we’ve all heard a million times by now, “Democracy’s on the ballot this year!” Or is it? Undeniably, there are threats to our traditional system of deciphering the Will of the People when many Midterm candidates won’t even give a straight answer about whether they’ll accept the outcome. But none of them are running in Inwood, thankfully. The closest we have to an election denier is Lee Zeldin. As a Congressman he voted against certifying Biden’s win in two states in a failed attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 Presidential contest and he has former President Trump’s Complete and Total Endorsement.
Rep. Zeldin
What we have on offer here are lopsided matchups between well-known incumbents and relative nobodies, or outright unopposed candidates. To be sure, we’d endorse Adriano Espaillat even if he had an opponent because he’s worked hard for this District and done a fine job representing our community in Congress, while remaining accessible to constituents up here. But he is running unopposed according to a vote.org ballot lookup.
Rep. Espaillat
Ditto for our rookie NY Assemblyman Manny De Los Santos: he’s running unopposed, according to the vote.org ballot guide. He seems like a nice guy and he’s always around the neighborhood.
Assemblyman Manny De Los Santos
From there we get into the David and Goliath matchups between headline grabbing household names and relative nobodies. We expect the Goliaths to win all of these races. For AG it’s Letitia James, the incumbent, vs someone named Michael Henry. It should be an early night for Ms. James who, like Espaillat, has been working hard and has earned another term.
NY A.G. James
Another familiar name around here is that of State Senator Robert Jackson. He’s been around for awhile, having previously served in the City Council for several terms. A known quantity, this Progressive candidate will face someone named Donald Skinner. Never heard of him. We’ll take Jackson, another candidate who’s earned our vote with his tenacious tenant advocacy and accessibility.
State Senator Robert Jackson
For U.S. Senator, incumbent Charles ‘Chuck’ Schumer takes on Joe Pinion and Diane Sare. We’ve never heard of either one of them and expect this one will be another early call on Election night.
U.S. Sen. Schumer
The race for Governor is Kathy Hochul‘s to lose, but a few polls show the race narrowing somewhat. Here’s why we think she wins: there are way more Democrats than Republicans in New York; challenger Lee Zeldin‘s association with Trump who lost the state by 20 points hurts his chances; her strength in Western New York owing to her Buffalo roots; and most importantly, she’s successfully auditioned for the job. Ever since she became Governor after Andrew Cuomo resigned more than a year ago, she’s been doing a good job and has earned a full term of her own.
Gov. Hochul
If you haven’t already mailed in an absentee ballot you can still vote early today, tomorrow and Sunday. Monday’s dark then Tuesday’s the big one: Election Day. Polls will be open 6AM until 9PM, and as always, if you’re a registered voter and you’re on line before closing time you can vote.
Predictit odds on November 3, 2022.